Chapter 32 – Ava Jade #2
Someone squeezed my hand, and I glanced up to find Grey there, giving me a comforting nod as tears raced down my cheeks and the ball in my chest grew. I sniffed, squeezing his hand back, reaching for Corvus.
I squeezed his knee, and he gave me the same reassuring look. “Be ready,” he said over the rush of the wind. “They could be waiting for us.”
The hope and joy that’d been churning in my gut turned back to heavy lead, and I drew my blades again, ready for anything. I fucking dared him to try something now. There was nothing on this mortal coil strong enough to stop me from getting to that hospital. Nothing.
The guys and I led the charge into the hospital with Damien St. Vincent and the other Saints flanking us, ready for anything.
I’d been courteous enough to sheath my blades, and the guys had holstered their weapons, but it was clear to anyone with two eyes and a brain that we were all armed to the teeth. Whether long t-shirts or jackets concealed the majority of our weapons or not.
“Is she in the same room?” I asked Damien, gaze fixed on the hallway ahead, and the stairs that would lead up to the next floor where I would take an immediate left and find her room.
“As far as I know,” he replied gruffly, starting to flag behind.
This made Grey pause, his sneakers squeaking on the tile floor. “You’re not coming?”
“Why would I? She doesn’t know me. Just… just let me know she’s all right, would you, lad?”
“Yeah,” Grey replied before I heard the rush of his footfalls hurrying to catch up to the rest of us as we blew into the stairwell. I had no patience to stand in the hall and wait for an elevator.
“There’s no chance this is a trap, right?” Corvus asked, taking the stairs two at a time in stride with me.
His words sent a spike of ice stabbing into my chest. If this was some sort of trick… if Carson had used my best friend against me again…
“It’s not,” Rook answered before I could, putting my apprehension to rest. “Damien would’ve sorted that out quick.”
His reassurance didn’t rid me of the disquieting thoughts altogether, though.
Thorn Valley had seemed eerily quiet on the way over here.
And with still nothing from Carson or the Kings, I couldn’t help feeling that something big was coming.
There was no way they were just going to crawl into a hole and disappear for good.
Carson would come for me. I knew he would. It was only a matter of time.
I bulldozed through the door to the second floor with a hard lump in my throat, seeing a willowy silhouette sitting up in bed through the curtain to her hospital room.
Nurses whispered outside her door, shaking their heads. “Such a shame,” one was saying. “Mr. Hart only just left to sign that merger. If he’d stayed another half day he would’ve been here when she woke up.”
“He’s assured us he’s on the next flight back.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that she had to wake up alone. Poor thing doesn’t have any other family?—”
“Yes she does,” I argued, shoving between the two nurses and into the room.
“Becks?”
My friend was shakily bringing a plastic cup to her lips, but stopped dead when we entered, her unfocused eyes squinting at me like she didn’t recognize me.
My heart stopped.
“Rebecca?”
“Who…”
Her voice was a hoarse whisper.
She set the cup down, swallowing hard as her brown eyes flicked to the guys behind me, clearly struggling.
No.
“Becks, it’s me. ”
I went to her side, sitting on the edge of her bed. I reached for her, but she shied away, her face paling. Fuck, she looked so frail. With her big brown eyes wide and fearful. Her body shrunken and weakened from being stuck in this bed. A weight settled in my stomach, yanking tears from my eyes.
“Sparrow…” Corvus hedged. “Memory loss is common in coma cases, maybe you should give her some?—”
“It’s me,” I implored her, ignoring Corvus as I saw a flicker of recognition in her eyes, making my pulse pound. “There you are. It’s me, babe. It’s Ava Jade.”
She dropped her head, shaking it, her eyes closed tight. Grimacing.
I gripped her cold hand tight between mine and this time when she lifted her head, her lips parted. “Aves?”
“Oh my god,” I choked out, pulling her into a solid embrace. “ Becks , you’re okay.”
Her arms came slowly around me, squeezing as well as she could. I felt her back heave as her tears stained the collar of my shirt, leaking over my collarbone.
“Holy shit,” she cried, clutching me almost as tightly as I was clutching her now.
“Let’s give them a minute,” Rook said somewhere behind me, and I heard the door to the hospital room click shut.
I sniffed, pulling away from her shaking embrace to hold her at arm’s length. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Me?” She sniffed. “You’re the one that was just… gone. But, you’re back. Where did you go? How could you just… just leave us like that.”
She wiped the back of her palm over her nose, falling against the inclined back of her raised hospital bed as if she couldn’t stay sitting up anymore on her own. I realized there was so much she didn’t know.
Sensing where my mind had gone, she took my hand in hers. “Babe? You were just staying away because you were angry, right?”
I wished I could lie to her, but I’d decided a long time ago that I needed to stop doing that. This bitch was my ride or die and just woken up from a coma or not, she deserved the truth.
“No, Becks, I wasn’t. But we don’t have to talk about this now. The important thing is that you’re awake. You’re all right. I’m… fuck, I’m so sorry this happened, Becks.”
She shook her head. “Did he…?”
I clamped my mouth shut.
Her nails dug into my palm. “Tell me everything. I want to know. I need to know. Is he dead at least? Did we get him? Did my painting help?”
“It did,” I assured her, remembering the guys telling me how smart she was to hide the painting before Carson could get to her. I didn’t care what anyone said about her, she was a badass bitch. “It helped so much more than you realize.”
Because of that painting, Diesel dissolved the alliance with the Kings before they could act. She might’ve single handedly saved at least thirty lives.
“But he isn’t dead, is he?”
Her hand went absently to her chest, to where a bandage covered the bullet wound an inch away from her heart. I could sense her fear in the way her body went rigid, her hand trembling in mine, but I could also see the fire in her eyes. The absolute feral rage simmering below the surface.
“No. He isn’t. We can’t find him.”
“Did he hurt you, Aves?”
My non-response was response enough.
“Oh, fuck, babe. I’m so sorry. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
She leaned forward to hug me again, and I let her hold my broken pieces together for me, just for a minute, wondering how I’d ever gotten by without her.
“We’re going to find him,” she promised with a harsh whisper in my ear. “And he’s going to pay. For all of it.”
I nodded against her shoulder. I couldn’t tell her right now, but once she was on her feet she needed to understand that there wasn’t a we when it came to dealing with Carson Bates.
I’d get my pint of blood of out of him on her behalf, but she wouldn’t be anywhere near this place when that happened.
Someone tapped at the door, and Becks and I pulled apart as the guys came back in. “Hey, Becca,” Grey said with a winning smile. “How you feeling?”
She tucked a length of rich brown hair behind her ear and tried to return his smile. “I’m awake,” she replied. “So that’s a start.”
Becca’s gaze flicked to Rook and filled with an anguished sort of warmth. “Thank you. The nurses said that you saved my life.”
I frowned, turning to face my dark prince. He winked at my bestie. “Anytime, love.”
I mouthed a thank you of my own to him, wondering why the fuck no one thought I should know that little tidbit. But of course he saved her. I doubted there was a reaper strong enough to take a soul Rook Clayton refused to give up. I was just glad he’d decided hers was worth holding on to.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Becca asked Corvus, her face screwing up at his new buzz cut.
Corv scratched the still healing puncture wounds on the back of his head. A habit I was trying to break him of. “I fell off a building.”
“Fell?” I pressed.
He cleared his throat, waving a hand toward Becca. “You look good.” Corvus coughed, not so sneakily changing the subject.
Becca gave a short laugh. “Right. And you’re a good liar.”
“I’ll get you your things from Briar Hall,” I offered. “Just text me the list and I’ll bring it for you.”
She shook her head. “They didn’t have my phone.”
I looked askance at my guys, but they shook their heads. Clearly Carson had taken it.
“Take mine,” Corvus offered, shuffling over to slip his phone onto her lap. “Code’s 26637. All of our numbers are already programmed in.”
I smiled gratefully at him.
“I know it’s not the time,” Grey hedged, licking dry lips as he rested his hands on the rail at the end of her bed. “But we’ve hit a wall trying to find Carson and?—”
“Carson?”
“Jericho,” I explained. “His real name’s Carson. He’s Diesel’s biological son.”
She jerked back as though slapped, trying to process. “What? Wait. Slow down. Diesel has another son?”
I could tell we were going to need to fill her in on all the dirty little details. If we did, then maybe she would remember something that would link us to Carson. Or lead us to the Kings. I’d take any scrap of helpful evidence at this point.
“If you’re sure you want to do this now?—”
“I am. I want to know what happened while I was out.”
I nodded. “Corv, can you ask one of the guys out in the hall to wrangle some peanut M&M’s and a cherry cola for Becks? We’re going to be here a while.”